Obscured by Clouds. The rough and ready blog of a cloud benighted biologist and amateur astronomer. Astroblog will cover my interests in astronomy, biology and Life, the Universe and Everything.

Saturday, December 08, 2012

Geminid Meteor shower, 14-15 December 2012

The radiant of the Geminid meteor shower
above the northern horizon as seen from Adelaide on the morning of
December 14 at 3:00 pm ACDST, similar views will be seen from other
sites at equivalent local times. The radiant is marked with a cross (click to embiggen).

The Geminid Meteor shower will be at its peak from the point of view of Australian's on the
mornings of Friday 14 December (the actual peak is 13 December 23h30m UT ) and Saturday 15
December but significant numbers should be also be seen on the morning of the 13th.

The best time to observe is between 1 and 4 am (daylight
saving time, 12-3 am non-daylight saving time), with the highest
rates between 2-3 am daylight saving time.

The Moon will be out of the picture, being just off New (New Moon is on the 13th) so this is an excellent year to observe. In Australia we should
see roughly a meteor every 2 minutes between 2-3 am daylight saving time under dark sky conditions. The more light pollution (the closer you are to the city) , the fewer meteors you see, but it is still worth while to look even if you are near the city or in the suburbs.

To observer the radiant, look to the north or north-east (depending on the time, the later you look the closer to north you should look). The radiant, where the meteors appear to come from, is just below Castor, the lower of the two bright, close stars that form the "twins" of Gemini.

When looking, be sure to let your eyes adjust for at least
5 minutes so your eyes can be properly adapted to the dark. Don't look
directly at the radiant site, because the meteors will often start their
"burn" some distance from it, but around a handspan up or to the side.
Be patient, although you should see an average of
a meteor every two minutes, a whole stretch of time can go by without
a meteor, then a whole bunch turn up one after the other.

Make
yourself comfortable, choose an observing site that has little to
obstruct the northern horizon, have a comfortable chair to sit in (a
banana lounger is best), or blankets and pillows. A hot Thermos of
something to drink and plenty of mosquito protection will complete your
observing preparations.

As well as meteors, keep an eye out for
satellites (see Heavens Above
for predictions from your site). The sky will also be particularly
beautiful, with the constellations of Orion and Taurus gracing the
north-western sky, Jupiter setting in the west and Saturn and Venus rising in the east.

You can check meteor rate predictions for you local site with the NASA meteor flux estimator
(scroll down to 4 Geminids in the SHOWER box, make sure you have your
location and date correct as well). You can follow world wide Geminid
counts at the IMO live Geminid site.

Just got back from viewing them locally @ Aberfoyle pk on top of a big hill & amazingly we saw at least 13 decent meteors (the morning of the 12th @ about 2:30am - 4am)cant wait for thursday night,should be spectacular!! Just need to find a better viewing spot away from the city!!

Thanks for all the great information here Ian, exactly what a novice like myself needs, very informative!! Congrats to everyone who saw some of the meteor shower, i too got to see a few but unfortunately the damn clouds decided to spoil the party on thurs/fri the peak nights of couse...Always next year i guess

I was a bit late having a look at around 2:30 am on 16 December from Melbourne. Due to cloud cover, my mission was aborted. Thanks for the information - especially since it appeared to be difficult to find out advice for the Southern Hemisphere.

G'Day If you are in Flagstaff hill that soul be dark enough for good rates. If you backyard is clear to the north-east, then that will do fine, otherwise choose a local park with a clear north-east horizon. If you feel like travelling head out to mount Lofty and try from the lookout.